Explanations of the conference topic of the 2026 BWP Section Conference
"Vocational Education and Training Science in Times of Global Transformation and Democratic Responsibility"

To provide suggestions for the conference contributions, thoughtful questions are presented in the context of research fields and design tasks that are closely related to the challenges and levels of vocational training research listed in the Call for Papers. They are intended as supplementary food for thought, particularly for the forums, and not as 1:1 prescriptions.

Macrolevel

• How can vocational training counteract global warming and global injustices in a "postcolonial" society? Are alternative economies needed and should they be included in vocational training curricula?
• What responsibility does vocational education and training science have on a global level? What effects do international organizations and companies have on national education policy?
• How do globally operating communication and information platforms and AI affect democratic structures and the opinion formation of learners in vocational education?

Exolevel

• How can trainees/learners, trainers, and NGOs be democratically involved in the development of educational innovations and goals? How are existing structures and participations (e.g. in task creation in the examination system, the development of training regulations) legitimized?
• How can structures be developed that offer flexible access and transitions in all regions while securing established qualification standards and the motivation of training companies? What contribution can vocational training make to overcoming inequality?
• What can make work in vocational education and training and at vocational schools attractive in times of a skilled labor shortage? How can academic teaching be (re)designed to meet the new challenges?

Mesolevel

• How can vocational education and training research contribute to breaking down institutional self-concepts, routines, and established practices (even within the own scientific community) in the face of challenges? Can it address and make visible existing power structures?
• How can the development of maturity and empowerment to act in non-linear processes, which are already addressed in the new standard job profile positions of the training regulations, be promoted while simultaneously fulfilling training occupation-related requirements?
• What conditions must be created in vocational schools and regional cooperation to make them centers of lived diversity and democratic and economic innovation?

Microlevel

• How can we prepare for phases of uncertainty in work and learning processes, as well as dealing with structural breaks in educational and life courses?
• How can relationship building in educational processes succeed in a way that participants develop resilience through self-efficacy experiences and experience courageous, solidarity-based action?
• How can individual support approaches be integrated inclusively into vocational training practice?

Scientific level

• To what extent can and should research itself be the subject and engine of change processes? What role do publication strategies and participatory research approaches play in this?
• What influence can and should (vocational) education research have on the quality and further development of the education system? How should political design tasks be prepared for in scientific careers?
• How can the transfer of research results into educational practice succeed, and what role do accompanying research in the funding programs play? How should advances in knowledge in adjacent scientific fields be incorporated?

With these and similar questions, the conference aims to take up different perspectives on change processes in the vocational education system and thus specifically bring the responsibility of vocational education science into the discourse in a time of global transformation and democratic requirements.

References:

Bauhardt, C. & Çaglar, G. (Hrsg.) (2010). Gender and Economics. Feministische Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Wiesbaden:VS, https://content.e-bookshelf.de/media/reading/L-17808-5a6913fd7f.pdf

Büchter, K.; Herkner, V.; Kögler, K.; Kremer, H.-H. & Weyland, U. (Hrsg.) (2024). 50 Jahre Sektion Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik in der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft (DGfE). Kontinuität, Wandel und Perspektiven. Opladen: Budrich. https://www.pedocs.de/volltexte/2024/31449/pdf/Buechter_et_al_2024_50_Jahre_Sektion.pdf

Buer, J. v. & Kell, A. (1999): Forschungsprojekt „Berichterstattung über Berufsbildungsforschung“. Abschlussbericht. (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungsforschungsnetz AG BFN). Berlin/Siegen 1999. Zeitschrift Berufsbildung, 77/1, (2023). Themenschwerpunkt: Nachhaltigkeit für und durch berufliche Bildung.

Council of Europe (2024). Promoting a culture of democracy in Vocational Education and Traininghttps://www.coe.int/en/web/education/-/promoting-a-culture-of-democracy-in-vocational-education-and-training

Hantke, H.; Kaiser, F.; Tafner, G.; Wittau, F. & Zurstrassen, U. (2025). Demokratiebildung als Querschnittsaufgabe beruflicher Bildung. In: K. Kögler; H.-H. Kremer & V. Herkner (Hrsg.): Jahrbuch der berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogischen Forschung 2025. (11–34) Budrich. https://shop.budrich.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/9783847432678.pdf

Hjelm-Madsen, M. & Kalisch, C. (2022). Regionale Disparitäten in der Berufsbildungsforschung: Deutungsmuster und Bewertungsansätze zwischen Vielfalt und Ungerechtigkeit. BWPAT, 42, https://www.bwpat.de/ausgabe/42/hjelmmadsen-kalisch 

Lempert, W. (2008). Zwei einfältige Fragen an alle 'gelernten' Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogen: wider die Unvernunft derzeit gravierender, weltweit grassierender, längst dominierender, noch eskalierender, weiter sich steigernder ökonomistischer Perversionen menschlichen Handelns, Lehrens und Lernens. Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 104(3), 467-468. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-131862 

Here is where you find the Call for Papers.

This is the link to the ConfTool (for handing in contributions and register for the conference)

The program will follow soon.